Course details

  • Study time: 2-4h

  • Target audience: Bachelor/Master students/Industry/academia representatives in the field of (Bio)chemical engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Welcome video

    • Meet the teachers

    • Learning objectives

    • What do you want to learn?

    • Become familiar with the learning platform

    • How to obtain your course certificate
  • 2

    Why LCA in the chemical industry?

    • Discussion on life-cycle approach

    • Advantages of life-cycle approach
  • 3

    LCA Steps & Examples

    • LCA Framework

    • The Goal

    • The Scope: Functional Unit

    • Exercise: Functional Unit

    • The Scope: System Boundaries

    • Exercise: System Boundaries

    • Data Inventory

    • Exercise: Data Inventory

    • Life cycle impact assessment

    • Exercise: Life cycle impact assessment

    • Interpretation

    • Case study: The four steps of LCA - Concluding Exercise

    • The Industrial Production of Renewables - Based Propylene Glycol

    • The production of 1–propanol from alternative and underutilised methane rich feedstocks

    • Additional reading material
  • 4

    Challenges and opportunities in the chemical industry

    • Allocation

    • Circularity

    • Biogenic carbon in LCA

    • Exercise Challenges
  • 5

    LCA in a European context

    • The European Commission - Views on Environmental Footprint

    • Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
  • 6

    Conclusion

    • Take home lessons

    • What did you learn?

    • Help us to improve this course

    • Thanks to our sponsors

Instructor(s)

Postdoctoral researcher

Pieter Nachtergaele

Pieter Nachtergaele (°1992) is postdoctoral researcher and educator at the department of Green Chemistry and Technology at Ghent University. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioscience Engineering: Chemistry and Bioprocess Technology. In 2016, he was active in industry at the oleochemical chemical company Oleon as process engineer. In 2017, he obtained a VLAIO Baekeland mandate, and started his PhD research in cooperation with Oleon and the sustainable systems engineering (STEN) research group at Ghent University. Within his PhD, he developed general methodologies for applying statistical and mechanistic modelling to biorefinery processes, able to account for a variable feedstock composition and quality. His current research focusses on renewable resources in the chemical industry, sustainable packaging solutions and the end-of-life treatment of plastic packaging. He is especially interested in applying process systems engineering tools (Industry 4.0, machine learning, life cycle assessment) to advance the transition to a bio-based and circular economy.

Dr.

Gwenny Thomassen

Gwenny Thomassen is a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University and the University of Antwerp. She obtained her master degree in bioscience engineering at the KU Leuven in 2014. In 2018, she successfully defended her PhD in Business Economics at Hasselt University in cooperation with the Flemish Institute on Technological Research (VITO), focusing on the integration of environmental and techno-economic assessment methods for algae-based biorefineries. In 2019, she started her research for the Circular Economy Policy Research Center, where she investigated the effect of technological learning on circular technologies. In 2022, she became the junior manager of the new Circular Economy Policy Research Center, also leading the research cluster on scenario analysis. Gwenny has a broad expertise in techno-economic assessments, life cycle assessments and material flow analyses applied to a wide variety of case studies such as energy technologies, algae and plastic packaging.